Thursday, October 21, 2010

Review: Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie's always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal.

Paranormalcy was a riot. It was incredibly creative and intriguing - long story short, I LOVED it. White does an amazing job revamping the traditional "paranormal" story; which is undeniably refreshing, especially in today's overloaded YA/Paranormal market.

The characters within the book are all beautifully written, especially Evie. She is so dynamic - she could practically jump off the page. Evie is one of those characters that you remember. She has a very vibrant personality; as well as fashion sense. She is obsessed with the color pink; even her taser, which she has dubbed, "Tasey" is sparkly and pink. Evie is a typical teen girl, with the same social fears and phobias, but yet, she has this completely unique quality and vibe to her. Evie can see through all the paranormal glamor and see people/creatures for what they truly are. She has got the Buffy thing going on, complete with the kickbutt attitude, but she is still incredibly insecure. All she wants is to be normal; something that she can never be. She has been isolated from other kids her age for as long as she can remember and has been working full time since she was eight. She is unbelievably lonely; which makes this tough, smart character, completely believable.

Evie's love interest, Lend, is.. in a word, amazing. He is unlike any other character I have ever stumbled across - I have no clue how White came up with him, but I have to give her mad props. I am not going to lie, I was expecting a werewolf love interest, or a vampire, or maybe even some type of faerie. But, no kiddies - Lend is none of the above. Not only is he highly original in, shall we say, make up, but is pretty much perfect boyfriend material. The chemistry between Lend and Evie is ridiculous - they are perfect together. I cannot wait to see their relationship develop further. They have this great us-against the world thing going, which is always great.

The plot of Paranormalcy was superb. The pacing was perfect; the character development was balanced with action - so the book never drags, but you don't feel like you are missing out on the characters. White does a great job creating a world that actually interesting. A lot of times with teen paranormal books, the focus is really just on the romance, and everything else suffers. The world and storyline in this book is very descriptive, fascinating and intriguing. You want to know more about the secondary characters and how things work in this alternate universe.

White has definitely served up one heck of a debut and hopefully the next in the series will live up. Paranormalcy ended in a good spot, but there are definitely questions left open. I can't wait to see what Evie and the gang get into next!

i have to admit that i did not enjoy this book as much as you. i wholly agree that the concept was very original and i loved Lend's character myself. however, for me i could not get around how evie can be so confident but yet so insecure at the same time. overall, i thought it was great read though. - Jas